Director General’sReport to Council

by Michael Chechile

At the beginning of the month, I was fortunate to speak at the Citizenship ceremony presided over by her honorable Veroni-ca Johnson. We kicked off the first Future Ready Student and weekend summit at Lakeside Academy with a clear theme of empowering students to take ownership of their learning. We visited the Ubisoft Codex event, where LaSalle Community Com-prehensive students revealed the video game Homebound: A New France Tale. In collabo-ration with Ubisoft and Fusion Jeunesse, students have been learning the ins and outs of video game development since January. LCCHS Sonic Howl won an award for Best Utilization of the Theme. Congratulations to Stirling, Max and Chloe and all students who participated!

I visited Allion Elementary, where Ms. Marshall’s Grade 2 students taught me everything I needed to know about cod-ing. Next, I visited St. Thomas High School to discuss the im-portance of student voice in our school board. We had an open, honest conversation with 30 students that shed a lot of light on issues our students think are important. It was a pleasure to meet and discuss with all of them!

This month, we celebrated daycare week. The dedication and hard work put in by our day-care educators and technicians is outstanding. They exceed all expectations and work tire-lessly to make sure our students are cared for before and after their school day. Our halls at our head office are adorned with puzzle pieces decorated by each school’s daycare program, signi-fying that we are and always will be ‘Partners in Success’.

I visited John Rennie High School and admired their im-pressive wall of artistic expres-sion. I then visited LCCHS and got to browse their year-end IB proj-ects. They were nothing short of remarkable and reinforced my impression that, thanks to our students, the future is in good hands.

I would like to congratulate Josie D’Adamo, vice-principal at LCCHS, on her second-hand prom dress boutique. Josie asked for dress donations for months and has now opened the boutique up to LBPSB stu-dents. Thank you for your com-mitment to reach out and help in making prom dreams come through. As well, I want to thank the Sonic Howl team for featur-ing a new Chechile character to their Homebound video game.

Chairman’s Report

to Council

by Suanne Stein Day

Be proud of yourself. Every-one in our community should be very proud. Our educational leaders around this table and in this head office, our in-school administrators and teachers, the support staff and profes-sionals who work closely with their teach teams, our parents and our students should be very proud. This month marked a special time for Education, Eng-lish Education and Lester B. Pear-son in particular. We broke a real tough barrier and, by working together and giving a consistent and informed message, we were heard by this current Quebec government and our new Edu-cation Minister.

First we provided feedback on a history program that all but ig-nored the contributions of the aboriginal people and minori-ties in Quebec and that program is being reconsidered. Then the government acknowledged that Bill 86 was a hornet’s nest of articles that did not affect student success and have fur-ther acknowledged that student success is what it all should be about. The Premier addressed delegates of the Quebec Liberal Party at the Conseil Generale in Drummondville on May 15th stating that “We need to say to our English-speaking fellow Quebecers that the way they did things, the way they conducted their school boards and their schools is the way to go for all Quebecers.” He further stated “I want our communities to show the same level of involvement in our school system as does the English community. I think also this is one of the key reasons for their success.”

And more, the keynote speak-er at the Congress, one of Que-bec’s leaders in education, Égide Royer, respected expert on la persévérance scolaire gave an inspiring talk on the subject. In the presence of the Premier, the Caucus and about 500 mem-bers, Royer made specific men-tion on three occasions of LBPSB and its excellent inclusive ap-proach. Thank you to the many teachers, support staff, consul-tants, professionals and admin-istrators who make our inclusive approach everything it needs to be for each student.

The month of May started off with the very successful Pearson Educational Foundation Family Fun Run. Over $4,000 was raised and everyone clearly had a great time.

May also is a month where we recognize many of the extraor-dinary accomplishments of our

See CHECHILE page A2 See STEIN page A2

The Pearson NewsFROM THE DIRECTOR GENERAL & CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

Mai/May 2016 GRATUIT/FREEVolume XVIII No. 9

FINALDU DIRECTEUR GÉNÉRAL ET DE LA PRÉSIDENTE DU CONSEIL

To learn more about the Lester B. Pearson School Board’s Autism Spectrum Disorders Centre of Excellence, visit: http://www.lbpsb.qc.ca/eng/asdn/index.asp

Girls in Motion at ClearpointSubmitted byRachel Wilson

On May 7th, 90 girls and women participated in our sec-ond annual Girls In Motion At Clearpoint event and it was a tremendous success! GIMAC is our way of celebrat-ing a Day of Action for girls whereby we are encouraged to create activities that center around issues that are impor-tant to us and our community. The title of this year’s theme was: Learning From Each Gen-eration and our motto was Gen-erations of Power! The most significant part of this event was the one that lead to the Day of Action. As an International Baccalau-reate PYP school, the idea of the

students leading the planning with mentors was the essence of the event. Twelve students from grades 4, 5 and 6 held weekly meetings to plan, coordinate, exchange ideas and obtain sponsors for GIMAC. Integration Aides, Ms. Louise Sudia and Ms. Ashley Nicholson, volunteered their time to help me guide and mentor the stu-dents. The day would not have been possible without the workshopleaders who volunteered to give up a Saturday afternoon for thisgreat event. We were inspired by a gradu-ating St. Thomas student, who graduated from Clearpoint. Lara showed us her courage when she shared her struggles with

anxiety. A grandmother, Nadia, ad-dressed the group and her keynote was overwhelmingly touching! She spoke of fleeing a country, starting over and over-coming all odds after devastat-ing losses. Food, coffee, drinks and raffle prizes were donated by many generous sponsors and we will be mentioning them separately and thanking them directly. Four graduating John Ren-nie High School students led sessions of cooperation and challenges, two seventh grade Academic plus students led ses-sions where the participants made buttons and pocket mir-rors. Our own Sabine Carré led ses-sions on mindfulness and yoga

and Susan Connery, Ed. Tech. consultant, led sessions on So-cial Media. Our culminating activity con-sisted of a high energy zum-ba workout by instructor and Clearpoint mom, Lisbeth! This reallytested our physical limits! Special mention of gratitude for the only man there that day,Stephen Wilson, for the incred-ible photos and collages which are essential for us to commem-orate this wonderful event. To say that this day created by girls to empower girls was a suc-cess is an understatement. We realize that we are amongst the fortunate in this world to have the liberties that we do and the experiences that we have, so this was our day of Celebration!

Peter Pan at St. Patrick Elementary This month, St. Patrick El-ementary put on their highly-anticipated play, Peter Pan! Adapted from the 1953 Disney Film, Peter Pan tells the story of a family of three young children - Wendy, Michael and John - who possess very vivid imaginations. One night, after entertaining her brothers Michael and John with stories about a young boy named Peter Pan, Wendy finds him searching her room for his lost shadow. Peter brings Wendy, Michael and John back to Neverland with him. There, they get up to no good when they cross paths with Captain Hook, who has still not forgiven Peter for cutting off his hand. Captain Hook vows to take re-venge on Peter and subsequent-ly kidnaps Tiger Lily - the Indian chief’s daughter - in hopes that Peter will reveal himself. Wendy and Peter end up free-ing Tiger Lily - however, Captain Hook can sense that Tinkerbell, Peter’s fairy sidekick, is jealous of Wendy and uses that emo-

tion to coerce her into revealing where Peter is hiding. Eventually, Tinkerbell realises what she has done wrong and saves Peter from Hook’s cleverly placed pie-bomb just in time! Peter fights off Hook in the fi-nal moments of the play and the scaredy-cat Captain flees when he sees that the crocodile who ate his hand has returned. Wendy, Michael and John re-turn to their home and regale their parents with tales from Neverland. The students and staff of St. Patrick did an extremely won-derful job of making this play come to life. From the stage de-sign, the costumes, the acting, the singing and the dancing, ev-erything went perfectly. The student actors were mag-nificent. Jerrika Gauthier shone as Captain Hook, Mackenzie Keefe-Bateman portrayed a lively and energetic Peter Pan, Francesca Worth embodied the merriment of Wendy, and Emma Proudlove made a wonderful Tinkerbell. A job very well done!

Photo by Stephen Wilson

A2Pearson News Mai/May 2016

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the Pearson News?

Impressed how he resembles me.

I had the honour of listening to Col. Chris Hadfield at the Can-ada-Wide Science Festival. His message was clear, ‘Continue to live a life of taking risks, contin-ue to contribute to improve the quality of human life, continue to work on ideas, continue to in-spire.’

I attended Christmas Park’s rendition of The Lion King; so many beautiful voices, great act-ing and amazing costumes and set. I also had the chance to stop in at Horizon High School to meet with their dedicated and motivating staff. Their school features amazing art, The Spot boutique for used clothing and a relaxation room for students.

What a great privilege to hon-our retirees at the banquet. I wish everyone the best of health and happiness. Thanks for in-spiring richly to our students.

I dropped by Beaconsfield High School to check out their striking artwork including pa-pier maché, silkscreened post-cards, drawings and paintings. The commitment the students have to their artwork shines through in their pieces. Thank you to their teacher Heidi Yet-man. The theme of art and cre-ativity continued as I had the opportunity to visit the 7th an-nual art expo at St. St-Lawrence Sr featuring artwork from SLA Jr/Sr and Orchard. Thank you to Marie France Fitzgerald and Laurie Jamieson for inspiring your students, unleashing their’ artistic talent and creativity.

I had the honour of meeting the four students who received the Toni Lucursi bursary at cen-terfield, during half-time of the Impact Soccer game. What a thrill to present to these amaz-ing students...and the Impact won, too!

Tomorrow, at the board office we will hold a memorial service in honour of Diane Fortier. We look forward to remembering together a dedicated and most appreciated colleague.

As graduations are fast ap-proaching, I would like to wish all our graduates success in their future endeavours.

Please follow me on Twitter at @mchechile to find out more about what is going on across our amazing school board.

Chechile, from page A1

students. Kicking that off was the Gala Création de jeux video, where our team from LaSalle Community Comprehensive won the award for Best Utiliza-tion of the Theme in the cre-ation of their video game. Ru-mour has it, their game now has a new character in it, doesn’t it Mr. Chechile?

Our senior students hosted the CSC Welcome to our World event for grade 6 students and the reviews were amazing. This event, which is webcast and can be found on our website, an-swers a lot of questions for stu-dents about to enter high school and gives them a bit more com-fort through this transition.

The Youth in Action Awards Gala of the West Island Volun-teer Bureau recognizes that so many of our students do a lot more in high school than attend class. Hundreds of our students work with the Bureau to volun-teer in many aspects so neces-sary in our communities. The Lieutenant Governor General’s Awards recognize those who ex-cel in this regard and I had the honor to attend a ceremony this past Saturday recognizing six of our students, Shannon Rooney from Riverdale, Courtney Jack-son from St. Thomas, Miranda Medeiros from John Rennie, Sukhdeep Singh Sandhu from Beurling, Jeanne Anjelica Tolen-tino from Lakeside and Nayra Abdel Fatta from Lindsay Place. Congratulations to all – as I told most of you on Saturday, I am in awe of you.

We celebrated Daycare Week on May 16 here in the board-room and honoured the amaz-ing women and men who care for our littlest students before, during and after school. Their dedication is exceptional and we are grateful for them.

Aboriginal Day at Greendale was another hugely successful event and was sponsored by the Intercultural Advisory Com-mittee. The history, traditions and customs of our First Na-tions people never fails to en-gage students young and old. The students presented Sharad Bhargava, Chair of our Intercul-tural Advisory Committee and me with Wampum Belts, made of traditional Wampum beads and used in storytelling and communication often as a peace gesture. Thank you for this spe-cial gift.

Our Retirement Banquet is a way to honour our staff, most of whom have dedicated 30 – 35 years to the success of our stu-dents. In total, our retirees this year represent over 2000 years of experience. We are so fortu-nate to have had the services of such wonderful people and I wish each and every one of them an exciting retirement. I say exciting and not restful – as the recipients were being recog-nized and their retirement plans were being read out, we noted that retired school and school board employees don’t have many plans to sit still. Best of luck to all.

On a sad note, our thoughts go out to the family and friends of Ruth Toohey. Ruth was a ded-icated teacher with the Lake-shore School Board, a pedagogi-cal consultant for the Ministry and a Commissioner with Lester B. Pearson. She passed away last week, after a battle with cancer, at the age of 84. She will be fondly remembered in this community.

JuniorLeadership

Day

St. Lawrence Academy Senior Art ExpoSubmitted by

Douglas Stewart

For seven years the annual St. Lawrence Academy Senior Art Expo has showcased student cre-ativity in a variety of media with an eye towards the masters and innovators throughout art history. The collection includes student work from the current school year with contributions from partner schools, including St, Lawrence Academy Junior and Orchard El-ementary. While the event could not have been possible without the creativi-ty and superior organizational skills of our art specialist, Marie-France Fitzgerald, the annual vernissage

reflects the remarkable team ef-fort of all of SLAS staff, students and volunteers. Long days and late nights for many staff members are a common occurrence in prepa-ration for an event that attracts visitors from throughout the en-tire Lester B. Pearson School Board community. The SLAS gymnasium is trans-formed into a maze of corridors and rooms leading the visitor through the collection. Ultimately, the visitor directed to the many pieces of custom painted furniture and hand crafts displayed for silent auction, and finally, to the Home and School bake sale in the adjoin-ing room. Children have a chance to match the artist and theme to

the mystery paintings on their “Expo Questionnaire” which teach-es them to identify the works of student creations inspired by art-ists including Keith Haring, Henri Matisse, Laurel Birch and Claes Oldenburg. Every visitor to the exposition is especially moved by a grade 6 “Transition To High School” project of student photos taken by their peers with the guidance of Integra-tion Aide Laurie Jamieson. These striking photos depict the range of emotions Grade 6 students face as they prepare for move from the protective cocoon of their elemen-tary school to the perceived, in-timidating challenges of the larger high school community.

Students, parents and residents of the Lasalle community from all age groups experience the vast collection each year. There are regular visits of art students from Lasalle College who meet at the event with their professor as part of their research program.

What is clear to everyone be-hind the scenes of this tre-mendous event; the Art Expo wouldn’t be possible without the essential ingredients of our remarkable art specialist, Marie-France Fitzgerald and the team of professionals supporting her throughout the process, from the months long set-up, to the Friday afternoon tear down.

Submitted by Nathia Messina and Michael Ryan Rabinovitch

The 4th annual Jr. Leadership Day for Cycle 3 elementary school students took place on May 6th, 2016 at St. Patrick El-ementary. Over 320 grades 5 & 6 students from 31 of our LBPSB elemen-tary schools came together for a conference focusing on leader-ship skills. Fifteen groups of LBPSB high school student-presenters en-gaged the elementary leaders with conferences focused on many different leadership top-ics. These sessions touched on a wide variety of topics such as ‘How to survive High School’, ‘Getting Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable, ‘How to Prop-erly use Social Media’ and ‘What to Expect When you Get to High School’. Eight of our high schools (Beurling, BHS, Lakeside, Lind-say Place, Mac High, PCHS, St. Thomas and Westwood Sr.) sent several of their very own leader-ship students – over 125 strong – to facilitate all of the break-out sessions during the day.

Before the break-out sessions began, the conference opened with two amazing keynote speakers, Sarah Kleinberg and Yanik Gaumond, students from Macdonald High School. Their ability to deliver a posi-tive and inspiring message to the elementary delegates truly set an amazing tone for the day-long conference. A special thanks to our em-cees Brianna, Jasmine and Cart-er, all of the Mac High leadership students and their teacher Mr. Chang for working so hard and helping to make Jr. Leadership Day so memorable. Once again, “Students teach-ing students” was a major theme and a key factor in the day’s suc-cess. It was a great opportunity for our high school leaders to seize the chance to connect with so many of our elementary stu-dents. The Jr. Leadership Day was an amazing conference that not only helped to promote lead-ership skills for our elementary learners, but more importantly connected today’s high school leadership students with the leaders of tomorrow.

Pearson NewsA3Mai/May 2016

Mindfulness at Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School

Lakeside AcademyDemonstrates

the Positive Impact of a Fine Arts Education in a

Well-Rounded CurriculumSubmitted by

Sevy Goulielmos

Lakeside Academy’s commu-nity was treated to an engaging Visual Arts and Music Show on May 11, 2016 that showcased the budding and the shining talents of Lakeside students from Sec I to V. The extensive Art Gallery wel-comed families with the visual delights of their children’s cre-ativity. Lakeside’s dedicated and resourceful art teacher, Ms. Roxa-na Reyes, selected an excellent representation of the art pro-duced this academic year. Lakeside’s Leadership students who helped to produce the event alongside the Music and Arts de-partments guided the guests into the auditorium for the Con-cert directed by Lakeside’s musi-cal Maestro, Mme Joanne Blon-din. The Concert introduced the enthusiastic Sec I students and included the Sec II to V Music students who were also featured in the award-winning Lakeside All Star Band and the seasoned Lakeside Concert Band perform-ing impressive arrangements from Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, and Game of Thrones among other entertaining selections. It was indeed a special presen-

tation, which emphasizes the core message of this story – Vi-sual Arts and Music in education is a fundamental element of the academic growth of each stu-dent. At Lakeside Academy, it is an integral part of the curriculum. Lakeside’s all IB philosophy fos-ters the development of the en-gaged, well-rounded student, and the fine arts is essential for a complete education. The in-depth concepts ex-plored across the Middle Years Program (MYP) of an IB educa-tion include a key contribution of the fine arts that provide a frame-work for successful teaching and learning. Visual Arts and Music at Lake-side are a collaborative exercise between the teachers and the students. The teachers are the mentors who put their hearts, vast experience and their re-spective creative vision into their teaching approach to identify the spark and potential in each student. Then they guide, en-courage, nudge and inspire their students to help them reach the best of their abilities and talents. Of course, we love what is dis-tinct about Lakeside, but, all par-ents with children enrolled in Lester B. Pearson School Board’s high schools can be gratified

knowing that when their chil-dren’s education includes Visual Arts and Music. The students who are excited and engaged in their fine arts study and participation notably improve learning throughout all academic areas. At Lakeside, students who may have begun their high school career with lim-ited interest in academics or with learning challenges soon find themselves flourishing because of the impact of the Visual Arts or Music programs, and many be-come proud Honour students as a result. Lakeside students learn that art is definitely more than coloring as they gain a greater understand-ing of art history and technique, and participate in increasingly complex creative projects. And, music is a science in itself that enriches the student’s learning skills because it is employing in-tricate thought. So remember all this, parents, when your child is crafting an in-tricate art project that takes up a lot of space at home or when your child is first learning to play the French horn. As is evident at Lakeside, Visual Arts and Music in education is the special recipe for the mak-ings of a happy, confident and well-rounded student.

Sparkle Boutique

Last month, students at Pier-refonds Comprehensive High School came up with an idea that completely entranced ad-ministrators. The students, many of whom struggled with anxiety, wanted to put on an assembly to ad-dress issues surrounding mental well-being. With the help of Nancy Battet, who is available through the school board to help with en-trepreneurship projects, the students put together a panel of experts who had experience helping students overcome anx-iety, depression and other men-tal illnesses. Among them were the school’s psychologist, Jo-Ann Centauro.

She spoke about how thoughts often manifest into behaviours and how to change the stream of thought to a more positive, open and inviting space. She also spoke about where stu-dents can go both inside and outside the school to get help. Patricia Assouad, a Lester B. Pearson School Board Educa-tional Consultant for Autism, spoke about anxiety and how to deal with panic attacks. She compared anxiety to a shaken can of soda, the pressure gradu-ally building until it explodes. Finally, Sheila Southon, the school’s guidance counsellor, spoke about ways to calm your-self during bad times. She men-tioned yoga and other medita-

tive exercises. She has even set up a dharana room in the school so students have a calm and inviting space to practice relax-ation techniques. Students also had the chance to speak at the assembly about their own personal experiences with anxiety and mental health issues. They had worked previously to make little stress-relief packages out of duct tape, that included stress balls and affirmaions, which they then sold at the as-sembly. They also sold cookies and created billboards to hang around the auditorium with positive words and phrases that they say helped them through hard times.

Josie D’Adamo, vice-principal at LaSalle Community Compre-hensive, recently made headlines when she announced the opening of Sparkle Boutique in the school. The boutique, made up of sec-

ond-hand dresses, shoes, acces-sories and now even men’s suits, aims to help students cut down on prom night costs. Josie spent months gathering the dresses and now has them on

display at the school. Any student is welcome to make an appoint-ment and take a look at all of the fabulous merchandise by contact-ing Josie at jdadamo@lbpsb.qc.ca

A4Pearson News Mai/May 2016

Below is a list of Commissioners along with their school board locals.

(514) 422-3000 Ward Communities Commissioner Local

Chairman All Suanne Stein Day 30101 1 Lasalle/Verdun Mary Ann Davis 30121 2 Lasalle/Lachine Frank Di Bello 30122 3 Lachine/Dorval Joshua Arless 30123 4 Pointe-Claire Noel Burke 30102 5 Pierrefonds-Roxboro Nan Beaton 30125 6 Dollard-des-Ormeaux Craig Berger 30126 7 Pierrefonds/DDO/Kirkland Laura Derry 30127 8 Beaconsfield Martin Sherman 30128 9 Pointe-Claire/Beaconsfield/Baie d’Urfé/Ste. Anne Eric Bender 30129 10 Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue/Île-Perrot Domenic Pavone 30130 11 Off-Island North Daniel Olivenstein 30131 12 Off Island South Wayne Clifford 30132 Parent Sharad Bhargava 30164 Parent Sandra Buckingham 30163 Parent Frank Clarke 30161 Parent Michael Nalecz 30162 Student Cierra Leitman Student Tyler Nacke

Executive Committee Monday, June 20 5:30 p.m. Board Room Council of Commissioners Monday, June 27 7:30 p.m. Board Room

Club Energie at Forest Hill